Student Name
Teacher Name
English 12 HN
23 September 2014
Common app/ William and Mary
Option #1: Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they
believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please
share your story.
Word limit: 650
My Fight Against Time
A blitzkrieg of frigid air hits me and channels its way into my lukewarm car as though
my car is being submerged in the Antarctic Tundra. I drag my feet out, one leg at a time, as my
legs, still exhausted from yesterday’s events begin to feel the fatigue and get a sudden sensation
as though a set of ball and chains have been shackled to my legs. My body sends a myriad of
messages through my nerves and directs me to return to the state of Zen and the quietness that
was my car, but I will not, I cannot.
My thoughts are discombobulated as I take my first step out of the car, a little disoriented
from the inadequate amount of sleep that I received the night before. Quickly, a swarm of
thoughts begin: Why am I here?, How will me showing up today help my future outcome?, It’s too
early for this. These thoughts suddenly, almost instantaneously, leave my mind as I remind and
reassure myself that the goals I have set cannot be achieved by doing things the easy way; I must
continue to swim upstream.
Bending backwards, I listen to the popping, creaking, and cracking sound of what appears
to be every vertebrae in my back. Suddenly, I start to feel like myself. The cold air doesn’t seem
to bother me anymore as I take longer, swifter strides towards the cluster of concrete.
Teacher Name
English 12 HN
23 September 2014
Common app/ William and Mary
Option #1: Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they
believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please
share your story.
Word limit: 650
My Fight Against Time
A blitzkrieg of frigid air hits me and channels its way into my lukewarm car as though
my car is being submerged in the Antarctic Tundra. I drag my feet out, one leg at a time, as my
legs, still exhausted from yesterday’s events begin to feel the fatigue and get a sudden sensation
as though a set of ball and chains have been shackled to my legs. My body sends a myriad of
messages through my nerves and directs me to return to the state of Zen and the quietness that
was my car, but I will not, I cannot.
My thoughts are discombobulated as I take my first step out of the car, a little disoriented
from the inadequate amount of sleep that I received the night before. Quickly, a swarm of
thoughts begin: Why am I here?, How will me showing up today help my future outcome?, It’s too
early for this. These thoughts suddenly, almost instantaneously, leave my mind as I remind and
reassure myself that the goals I have set cannot be achieved by doing things the easy way; I must
continue to swim upstream.
Bending backwards, I listen to the popping, creaking, and cracking sound of what appears
to be every vertebrae in my back. Suddenly, I start to feel like myself. The cold air doesn’t seem
to bother me anymore as I take longer, swifter strides towards the cluster of concrete.
